A blog about digital rhetoric that asks the burning questions about electronic bureaucracy and institutional subversion on the Internet.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Going Out of Business Salesmanship

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the YouTube channel of General Motors features this commercial with tag lines like "the only chapter we're focused on is chapter one" and "this is not about going out of business; this is about getting down to business." It's also worth noting that adding comments has been disabled for this video.

In trying to promote their brand, GM is also using Flickr and Twitter, like other struggling American car companies. GM Reinvention carries the corporate downsizing message much more clearly than the main website for GM, which buries the bad news in the Flash rollovers at "Our Mission."